How to get into the Halloween spirit

Halloween is fast approaching and we will soon have a tonne of Halloween themed candy for you to enjoy (or give out to those pesky Trick or Treaters!). Candy Corn, Mike & Ike, Peeps…LOADS of stuff. But to get you in the mood…here’s Alan Stone with…erm…how to get in the mood.

I know what you’re thinking: Halloween, already? Jeez, this is just like when they put Christmas trees in stores in August!

With Halloween over a month away, you’ve probably got a million and one other things to be worrying about, such as stocking up on Twinkies should they ever disappear from our lives again (I’ll never lose you again, old friend!).

But Halloween, more than any other holiday, is all about preparation. You’ve gotta buy Halloween candy for the local kids, costumes for yourself and, if you really wanna celebrate Halloween with a bang, decorations for your house.

So, over the next few weeks, I’m gonna be helping you get ready for Halloween with a whole bunch of posts covering everything from candy to costumes. But first, we gotta get you in the Halloween spirit. Luckily, I’ve got just the thing…

A month of horror movies

Halloween is nothing without horror movies, but there are way too many greats just to watch on the night. So why not pace your favorites over the course of a month and REALLY get yourself worked up for All Hallow’s Eve?!

This is a great way to get the kids into the Halloween spirit too; think Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, The Monster Squad and Gremlins (okay, so it’s technically a Christmas movie but they’re monsters, right?).

Then, when the kids are tucked up and you’ve checked under the bed for monsters, you can break out the really terrifying movies!

This is also a great way to come up with costume ideas!

Add a decoration a day

I love decorating our home for Halloween – one of my proudest moments will always be making a papier mache pumpkin and covering it with old Cheetos packets. Sure, I could have just bought a pumpkin and saved my Ma having to buy a new carpet (glue sure is messy!) but where’s the fun in that?

Adding a decoration to your house once a day over the course of October is a great way to get yourself excited, and creep out your guests too. A random cobweb here and there, followed by a skeleton, and then a couple of tombstones; by October 31st, your home should be a full house of horrors!

Play some scary videogames

When you’re a grown up, like I am (apparently), Halloween loses a bit of its fright factor. You know monsters aren’t real, that Jason Voorhees was just a big actor in a hockey mask and that Freddy Krueger is more likely to rap at you than murder you in your dreams.

For my money, there’s no better way to get yourself some adult-scares then indulging in some videogames. And man, there are some really, really terrifying games out there – The Last of Us, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Into the Dead (which is FREE on iOS and Android). Trust me, there’s nothing scarier than putting yourself in the shoes of some dude about to be eaten by a horde of zombies.

Now, this might sound a little crazy and there are certain situations when you probably won’t be able to wear your costume (work, for example, unless you have a really understanding boss) but seriously, put your costume on for an hour a day leading up to Halloween and tell me you don’t feel a tiny bit more excited for Halloween. Go on, I dare you…

So those are some of my Halloween spirit-building ideas. Got any you’d like to share? Get in touch on Twitter @AStoneHCO, on Facebook or leave a comment below. Later, Stoneites!